Lunch PailCirca 19002010.020.0001

Every day, lunch pails like this one made their way with slate workers to and from the many slate quarries in the Slate Valley. This aluminum lunch pail contains many different compartments that fit together, allowing quarry workers to bring their lunch, and even dessert, to work. At home, women cleaned these lunch pails and then packed them for their husbands or boarders.

After the steam whistle blew, signaling lunch, slate workers gathered around their pails to eat and talk. Later, after the steam whistle blew to signal the end of the work day, the lunch pail could be put to more unusual uses. Jack “John” Williams told the story of how on your way home for the night, 5 cents could fill the bottom of your lunch bucket with beer at one of the many bars on The Alley.